News from EPI › Job creation slow, but trend still murky

In today’s Jobs Picture, EPI economist Heidi Shierholz describes the labor market forces that produced just 69,000 non-farm payroll jobs in May. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 8.2 percent in May from 8.1 percent in April, but the rise was due to the fact that 642,000 people entered the labor force. Shierholz contends, “This month’s numbers should not yet be read as a sign of a slowdown. Even so, payroll employment growth is nowhere near strong enough to get us to full employment anytime soon.”

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Economic Policy Institute

EPI is an independent, nonprofit think tank that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States. EPI’s research helps policymakers, opinion leaders, advocates, journalists, and the public understand the bread-and-butter issues affecting ordinary Americans.